Sepia Saturday 741 - Highs & Lows

When I look at a new SS theme, I usually have an idea of which pictures from the family archive I could use.  But not this time. Fortunately, Alan provided an escape (as he always does). He mentions "a couple of Alpine skiers from almost a century ago, feeling high on the top of a mountain".

I am not a skiing man myself nor do we have mountains in Holland. The highest "mountain" here is a hill called the Vaalserberg in the province of Limburg; it is a little over 300 meters high. Not exactly the type of mountain when you plan to go out skiing. But there is a picture of my grandfather Andreas Miebies (1883-1957) standing in the dunes near The Hague. It was taken over a century ago, during the second part of WW One when he was mobilized. We see him here standing on the very right. His rank is that of sergeant and he is the commanding officer of this group of soldiers serving in the 47th Landweer batallion Hunters (Jagers).

A section of infantry troops belonging to the 47th batallion Hunters
with Sgt. Andreas Miebies on the very right

The rifles you see are the Austrian .256 Manlicher M.95. It was manufactured 

under license in The Netherlands by the Hembrug weapon factory in Zaandam. 

It has been in use until after WW Two.

Manlicher M.95

When my grandparents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, their oldest 

son, my father, put together a kind of PowerPoint presentation avant la lettre. 

For that purpose, he made several drawings and stitched them onto a fabric roll. 

On the drawing below he drew himself shortly after his birth on his father's lap 

with Grandma still in bed. At the time, my dad was born in August 1914, 

Granddad apparently served already in the army as the Manlicher rifle was up 

against the wall and his uniform on the chair.

At the beginning of WW Two, the Dutch army Manlichers were confiscated and 

used by the Germans. So it is not impossible that just a few days before the end of 

WW Two, my father and his comrades were shot by Dutch Manlichers in the 

hands of Germans...

Like the drawing, the picture of the military in the dunes was also part of the presentation my father made for his parents. Readers with sharp eyes will 

be able to see the stitch holes on the top side of the photograph.

If you want to see how other Sepians interpreted this month's theme, go to the

Sepia Saturday site and enjoy yourself!

Sepia Saturday 736 - Postcard Memories

These days it is sporadic that I see a postcard when I open my letterbox. But there was a time, some of you may remember, when it was quite common to communicate with family and friends, by sending an illustrated postcard. When on holidays or on the occasion of a birthday, a postcard was carefully selected. The postage was less than required for a letter. So all space available was used to the very last millimeter to convey the news that the weather was fine, the food delicious, and the birthday happy. That was the pre-digital era my mother lived in. Her name was Ann de Langen. She was born on Oct. 31, 1917, and she closed her eyes precisely 99 years later in the early morning of Nov. 1, 2016. She liked to send and receive handwritten letters and postcards. And I consider myself lucky that she kept many of them in a shoebox which I found after the funeral. Altogether over 400 items including a collection of pre-WWII movie star postcards. Based on the postmarks she collected those when she was between 15 and 18 years old. Below are a few examples of cards showing the stars of the past. Some names still ring a bell. 

As you will see I have taken the liberty to imitate Alan's SepSat-lay out.

Marie Magdalene Dietrich (1901-1992)
Mail stamp The Hague, August 9, 1933
Postcard written by best friend Ineke Weststeijn (1918-before 2011)

Maurice Auguste Chevalier (r) (1888-1972) and junior?
Mail stamp The Hague, July 25, 1933
Postcard written by Ann's mother Antje de Langen-Doelman (1892-1984)

William Clark Gable (1901-1960)
Lucille Fay LeSueur Crawford (1908?-1977)
Mail stamp The Hague July 25, 1935
Postcard written by friend Lenny (Maarleveld?)

Lilian Helen Muriel Pape (1906-1968)
John Boles (1895-1969)
Mail stamp The Hague April 21, 1934
Postcard written by little sister Thea de Langen (1921-1996)

The stamps on all these postcards have a value of 5 Dutch guilder cents. At the time that was the rate for domestic delivery. In euro, that equals something like 2.7 euro cents. To illustrate the word 'inflation', today's domestic rate is € 1.14 ...

On the Lilian Harvey postcard above, you see a second stamp. That is additional postage because the sender forgot that the address was in Belgium. The extra expense came to the impressive amount of 70 Belgian franc centimes equalling approx. 3.5 Dutch guilder cents.

The last postcard is an uncirculated one. It shows the film song title of a 1929 composition by John Frederick Coots. So I don't expect there are Sepians around with a vivid memory of this blockbuster starring the famous (but murdered) Ramon Novarro (1899-1968). His co-star Anita Page (1910-2008) was at least equally renowned. She earned her credits during the silent movie era. 

Ramón Gil Samanlego and Anita Pomares

Since I am fond of making lists, most of them useless, I'll list the names, other than the ones mentioned above, of all the movie stars in my mother's collection. In case you are a fan of a particular star, I can mail you a scan of the relevant card(s). And if you don't recognize some of these names, it just means you are young of age.

Truus van Aalten (one of two postcards in my mother's collection displaying a Dutch movie star)

Hans Albers

Georg Alexander

Gitta Alpar

Tala Birell

Maurice Chevalier and Sylvia Sidney

Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette Mac Donald

Gary Cooper

Jackie Cooper

Lil Dagover

Marion Davies

Lien Deyers (Dutch)

Martha Eggerth

Charles Farrell

Willi Forst

Willy Fritsch

Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey

Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, and Willy Forst

Willy Fritsch and Camilla Horn

Willy Fritsch and Renate Müller

Gustav Fröhlich

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert

Janet Gaynor

Gold diggers (group)

Dolly Haas

Dolly Haas and Heinz Rühmann

Liane Haid

Liane Haid and Georg Alexander

Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst

Brigitte Helm

Trader Horn

Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth

Jeannette Mac Donald

Renate Müller

Renate Müller and Hermann Thimig

Käthe von Nagy

Käthe von Nagy and Hans Albers

Ramon Novarro

Anny Ondra

Henny Porten

Heinz Rühmann

Anna Sten

Tarzan (Johnny Weissmüller?)

Hermann Thimig

Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry

Otto Wallburg and Mady Christians

There are 85 movie star postcards in the collection. Not an impressive number but the cards must have had a certain value to my mother. Otherwise, she would not have kept them in a box for more than 80 years. During that period she moved 15 times! So it is a small miracle that these cards survived all the packing and unpacking. And now they have become part of my family archive. Hopefully, that will survive the next 80 years as well...

For more postcard memories please send yourself to Sepia Saturday.

Samengestelde familienamen/combined last names in practice

For the English summary please see after the Dutch text.

Sinds 1 januari 2024 bestaat voor ouders de mogelijkheid om hun kinderen niet alleen de familienaam van één van de ouders te geven maar ook van beide ouders. Ongeveer een jaar geleden heb ik daar al eens een blog aan gewijd. Daarin heb ik aangegeven dat in de toekomst de mogelijkheden om te vernoemen alleen maar toenemen. Het wordt er daarmee niet overzichtelijker op maar het Ministerie van Justitie heeft vastgesteld dat er behoefte aan is dus ... En (mede) op basis daarvan is die nieuwe wet er gekomen.

NRC 1e zaterdag
van 2024

We zijn inmiddels een aantal maanden in het nieuwe jaar en ik ben heel benieuwd of deze nieuwe mogelijkheden al enthousiast in praktijk worden gebracht. Helaas heb ik geen inzicht in alle geboorten in Nederland. Ik moet het dus met een selectie uit mijn krant doen en dat is de NRC. Voor het gemak ga ik er maar van uit dat al die geboorten betrekking hebben op Nederlandse staatsburgers. Ik neem tenminste niet aan dat buitenlandse ingezetenen zich in dit opzicht aan de Nederlandse wet moeten houden. Ook hoort u mij niet zeggen dat de geboorte-advertenties, die, meestal elke zaterdag, in mijn krant gepubliceerd worden, representatief zijn voor alle Nederlandse geboorten. Maar de naamgeving is misschien wel een indicatie hoe jonge ouders met de nieuwe mogelijkheden omgaan.

Voor de goede orde, kinderen tooien met de naam van de moeder in plaats van met die van de vader, is al sinds 1998 mogelijk. Maar daar wordt niet merkbaar vaak gebruik van gemaakt. Dan nu de resultaten van dit zeker niet representatieve onderzoekje.

Tot en met 27 juli van dit jaar hebben er 236 geboorteadvertenties in de NRC gestaan. Niet altijd wordt in zo'n advertentie vermeld welke achternaam de boreling gaat dragen. Dat waren er in deze periode 78 ofwel 33%. Van de overigen zullen 140 babies (traditioneel) de naam van de vader dragen, het overgrote deel dus (59,3%). 9 kindertjes krijgen een samengestelde naam en wel die van de vader en de moeder (3,8%) zoals Julius hieronder.

Baby vernoemd naar zijn vader en moeder
Baby named after his father and mother

Ouders die hun kind naar de moeder en de vader vernoemen vormen een nog kleinere groep. In mijn verzameling vind ik er 3 (1,2%).

Baby vernoemd naar zijn moeder en vader
Baby named after his mother and father

Bij die drie babies zit nog één twijfelgeval. De lay out van de advertentie lijkt te suggereren dat 'Dickson' een voornaam is terwijl het ook de achternaam van de moeder is. Dus misschien bestaat deze groep maar uit 2 ouderparen die hun kind tooien met de gecombineerde namen van de moeder en de vader. En dan ga ik er voor het gemak maar vanuit dat het hier een kind met (ook) de Nederlandse nationaliteit betreft.

De 3e voornaam is gelijk aan de achternaam van de moeder
The last given name is equal to the mother's last name

Tot slot nog een iets grotere groep ouders die hun kind uitsluitend naar de moeder vernoemd hebben. Het zijn er 6 ofwel 2,5%. Deze mogelijkheid is niet nieuw en bestaat al sinds 1998.

Baby vernoemd naar de moeder
Baby named after his mother

Samenvattend kan gesteld worden dat de nieuwe mogelijkheden maar nauwelijks gebruikt worden. Zelfs wanneer je de 78 advertenties buiten beschouwing zou laten waaruit niet is op te maken welke achternamen de kleine draagt, dan nog maakt slechts 7,6% (12) gebruik van de nieuwe wet. Daarnaast zijn er nog 6 (3,8%) ouderparen die de wet van 1998 benutten. Al met al ben ik niet onder de indruk van de mate waarin de nieuwe mogelijkheden benut worden. Het lijkt in ieder geval nog niet op de door het Min. van Justitie (zie het eerdere blog over dit onderwerp) gesuggereerde 32%. Gelukkig maar, denkt de genealoog in mij.

English summary

Effective January 1, Dutch parents can name their newly born after both proud parents. Traditionally babies in The Netherlands are named after the father. Since 1998 parents can choose between the father's and mother's name. And now any combination of the two is allowed as well. In an earlier post, I explained the extended possibilities of this new law. 

According to government officials, there is a need for this modification. 32% of all respondents to a government-sponsored questionnaire reacted positively to the possibility of naming their child after both parents (rather than after one of them). 

Since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, I looked at the birth announcements published in my newspaper NRC* since the beginning of this year. The result was no surprise.

Until last Saturday a total of 236 ads were published. Ignoring 78 ads where only the babies' given name(s) were mentioned, the following emerged.

- named after the father: 140/88.6% (traditional)

- named after the father and mother: 9/5.7% (possible since 2024)

- named after the mother and father: 3/1.9% (possible since 2024)

- named after the mother: 6/3.8% (possible since 1998)

All in all less than 8% of the parents used the opportunities created by the new law. That is not very impressive, the more so because the a.m. investigation suggested a greater enthusiasm. Genealogy is one of my hobbies, so I don't feel sad about this result.

*This used to be the abbreviation of 'Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant'.

Sepia Saturday 733 - On the water

I wrote about this subject before but assume that for most Sepians the story is new. Obviously, it is about water, about seawater to be more precise. The story starts in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on January 24, 1925. On that day a Lady Addis arrived on the Hawthorn Wharf there. Lady Addis was the wife of Sir Charles Stewart Addis, a.o. director of the famous P&O Line. This shipping company ordered four new ships for the London-Bombay mail service. They were named after Indian cities whose names all started with an R, hence they were known as the R-ships. Lady Addis came to the wharf to baptize P&O's latest R-ship, the SS Ranchi.

SS Ranchi

Apart from sailing between the UK and India, at the time still a British colony, she also did cruises in the Mediterranean. But in August 1939 the SS Ranchi was requisitioned by the British Admiralty to serve as an armed merchant cruiser. To accommodate guns her after funnel was removed as can be seen in the picture below.

In that configuration, the ship sailed some 300,000 miles on patrol and escort services until she was refitted as a troopship in 1943. The Ranchi participated in the Allied invasion of Italy. In 1947 she was reconditioned again to carry emigrants predominantly to Australia.

On August 15, 1945, the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, present-day Indonesia, came to an end. Also, British troops were instrumental in the surrender of Japanese forces.  Shortly after, the Indonesian independence movement gained momentum. This resulted in over 200,000 Dutch troops being sent to the Dutch colony to reestablish Dutch rule there. However, in 1949 the Dutch government was forced to recognize reality and Indonesia became an independent state.

Part of the Dutch military presence consisted of the Royal Dutch (East) Indian Army (KNIL). These troops consisted of soldiers whose families lived there for ages and also many indigenous people. After the independence declaration, they had the option of becoming Indonesian nationals. However, most of them opted for the Dutch nationality and had to leave the country. Many had to leave in a hurry because their security situation deteriorated rapidly. During the year 1950 over 100,000 people left Indonesia by ship, and the vast majority came to The Netherlands. It is easy to imagine that for this operation many passenger ships were needed and the SS Ranchi was one of them. Chartered by the Dutch government she left the port of Tanjung Priok, near Djakarta, on August 29, 1950.

The passenger manifest showed 973 passengers of which 781 KNIL troops including their wives and children. The voyage to Amsterdam ended on September 25 after having sailed the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Channel, and the North Sea. Surprisingly, upon arrival in Amsterdam, the number of passengers turned out to be 1,010! A plausible reason for this increase is the discovery of stowaways or the captain picking up crew from a sinking ship. But the true reason was that during the trip 35 women gave birth to a total of 37 babies!

Afterward, it appeared that the military knew about all these pregnant women in advance. They put as many as possible on a limited number of ships. These ships were accommodated with all the necessary medical staff and equipment including delivery rooms. The Dutch press quickly called them the Baby ships.

Obviously, not all these babies were born at the same time. Fortunately, I have found many details about this trip a.o. in the Dutch National archives in The Hague. There I found their names and the date and time of their birth. I have been in contact with several of them and some knew exactly the latitude and longitude of their birthplace. For others, I have made calculations based on the assumed speed of the Ranchi. The result is on the map below.

Route map with the places of birth of the 37 Ranchi babies 

Maybe you wonder how I ran into this story. It so happened that I saw an obituary in one of our newspapers.

Obituary of Esther Henriëtte Ranchita

First, I saw the deceased was born on a ship during a period when many ships sailed from the former Dutch East Indies. There were 95 of these ships in 1950 alone! But what really attracted my attention was the given name 'Ranchita'. And I thought Ranchi, Ranchita, this cannot be a coincidence! And it wasn't. When later, I had a look at all 37 baby names, and I found more 'ship names': Ranchi, Ranchis, Ranchia, and Ranchita. All in all 13 babies with an R-name. Believe it or not, Lady Addis, the godmother of the Ranchi, had 13 children as well!

Apparently, the ship's captain also found this a special trip. In his farewell letter to his passengers, he wrote: "I trust that all passengers, especially the little Ranchis and Ranchitas will remember this voyage to Amsterdam with pleasant recollection. I noticed since Aden the local storks have been interested in this ship. I have personally seen dozens, which probably accounts for the additions to our passenger list."

Altogether, the SS Ranchi made two trips as a charter for the Dutch government in 1950. Whether this contributed to her final demise, I don't know but in 1953 the Ranchi was scrapped in Newport, Wales. On January 19, almost to the day 28 years after she was launched, she was handed over to the demolition crews. She survived Lady Addis by less than a year. 

In case you like to know more about the described trip of the SS Ranchi, please see here.

For more watery contributions, please see the Sepia Saturday site.

Notes:

The other three R-ships were the SS Rawalpindi, SS Ranpura, and the SS Rajputana.

Nine years ago I found the colored image of the SS Ranchi on http://www.npg.org.uk.

The b/w picture is made bij photographer Alan C. Green (1878-1954).

Sepia Saturday 728 - Busy Times

Some 15 years ago, a former colleague in Copenhagen saved many old KLM pictures from the dustbin. KLM is the Dutch national carrier. The complete story of how and where that happened, you can read here. Obviously, among those pictures, there were many taken at airports. And having been a frequent traveler, I can testify that airports can also be busy. So most of my busy pictures are very much airport-related. They go back to the period before WWII or shortly after that.

The first one is about something many of us fear, customs formalities. Just after the war, oral declarations were obligatory and thus time-consuming. There were currency regulations and all kinds of import restrictions. Green and red lanes were nowhere near in sight.

Anything to declare?
Customs and Immigration at Schiphol Airport in the 1950's

Customs officers are not curious, it's just that they like to know everything. Judging by the carnation, the gentleman in the picture below looks like he is on his way to a/his wedding. Seemingly, he has difficulty explaining what he bought for the/his bride.

Convincing a customs officer is an arduous task

On October 16, 1961, one of the best soccer teams in the world, Real Madrid, made a transfer at Schiphol Airport. They were on their way to Denmark where they played the B 1913 Odense team during the European Cup competition two days later. The team consisted of legendary players such as Ferenc Puskás and Alfredo di Stéfano. They participated in this match so they appear in the picture below but I cannot pinpoint where exactly. If you want the result, Real Madrid beat the Danes bij 3-0.

Real Madrid at Schiphol Airport in front of the
PH-CGC Jacob Maris, a Convair Liner CV-340 

Speaking of legendary people, on May 8, 1946, Sir Winston Churchill and his wife and daughter, paid a visit to The Netherlands. They arrived from Croydon in a Dakota C-47A (DC3) with registration PH-TBO.

Sir Winston Churchill, Lady Clementine Churchill, and Miss Mary Churchill
and next to the great man, the Dutch ambassador to the UK, and his wife and
the KLM UK director.

In 1946 KLM was busy restarting its operations. One of the main handicaps was the lack of suitable aircraft. KLM obtained this Dakota from the USAAF on January 14 of that year. Barely 10 months later the plane flew into treetops on a hill shortly before landing at Croydon airfield and crashed. All (20) aboard survived.

45" video of Churchill's arrival at Schiphol 1)

My contribution to the Sepia Saturday theme of this month is best demonstrated by the crowdy picture below. Although I don't know when it was taken, several clues indicate a certain timespan. First of all the location. This is clearly on the apron of the old Schiphol Airport, currently known as Schiphol East. It was in operation until April 28, 1967, when the (new) Schiphol Centrum terminal was opened. Another indication is the KLM logo on the Volkswagen vehicle half hidden behind the mobile stairs on the right. It looks like the logo that was used in the 1959-1963 period. Seeing the many spectators including children, the event could be the arrival of sportsmen or a celebrity. On the mobile stairs, a couple of microphones are visible. So someone needed to be welcomed after having accomplished something admirable. During the period mentioned Olympic medal winner Sjoukje Dijkstra 2) (figure skating) and European Songfestival winner Teddy Scholten 3) arrived at the old airport attracting thousands of people. But I don't believe this picture was taken then. The reason is that I recognize one of the three gentlemen standing under the conveyor belt next to the mobile stairs. The man in the middle, with the brownish coat, is Dick J.M. Koek, at that time already one of the leading KLM Cargo managers. His office was in nearby building 205. And I can't imagine him leaving his desk to welcome one of the celebrities I mentioned. So the photo is likely to have been taken on another occasion.

Schiphol East 

To discern more detail, I colorized the picture 4). But that did not help me any further. Still, it is a quite different experience.

If there is any truth in the saying 'two's company, three 's a crowd', the family below certainly deserves to be called a crowd. 

After WWII many people from Holland emigrated to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Rotterdam milkman Sybrand van der Dussen, his wife Johanna van Keulen, and 11 kids were among them. (If you count just 9 children, a twin is in the wicker baskets...) The family flew to New York Idlewild Airport (today JFK) and from there by train to Southern California.

The Van der Dussen family departing from Schiphol
on April 24, 1947

The flight to New York took place in one of the most elegant aircraft ever built, the Lockheed Constellation, also known as Connie or L-049. 

The PH-TAU that carried the Van der Dussens to
Idlewild Airport  5)

Should you wonder why the fuselage is so high above ground level, that has to do with the length of the propeller blades. And in turn, that has to do with fuel efficiency, which was an important aspect in the longer trans-Atlantic runs. 

Returning to the Vander Dussen emigrants, father Sybrand continued in the dairy business. His son told me 12 years ago that their family business expanded to milking approximately 100,000 cows! If that doesn't keep you busy... Quite an impressive achievement!

In more ways than one, this is the last picture. I took this picture of the Canadian Cemetery in Holten in The Netherlands during a visit last December. It is one of the largest military cemeteries here. It saddens me to say that it is a busy place, with almost 1,400 memorial stones belonging to Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during the first months of 1945. They liberated the eastern and northern parts of my country including Apeldoorn, where I lived at the time. Can't say I remember that 17th of April as I was only a little over a year old.

Canadian Cemetery, Holten, The Netherlands

The Canadian liberators in the Deventerstraat
in Apeldoorn on April 17, 1945
Source: apeldoornendeoorlog.nl

For more 'busy times' please see the contributions of my fellow Sepians.

Credits and notes

1) Polygoon Hollands Nieuws (producer) / Dutch Institute for Images and Sound (administrator)

2) March 19, 1962

3) March 13, 1959

4) Colorized with the My Heritage tool

5) Source: https://www.klmsafetyherald.com/klm-l-constellation-fleet

Sepia Saturday 723 - The Cyclists

I am certain I am the first Sepian cheating. Cheating? Maybe I should explain. My intention to post a contribution once a month or so combined with Alan's invention of a monthly theme, enables me to write a single post merging the four weekly subjects. And that is what I will be doing this week, for the first time. So this month the prompts are about coaches, cyclists, and cars (and cocktails but they need to be better represented in my shoebox archive).

So let me start with the coaches. After my mum passed away we found some pre-war albums with pictures of her high school trips mainly to Germany. My mother was born in Rijswijk, a small town near The Hague, in 1917. The trips took place during the years after the infamous stock market crash in 1929. But that apparently did not stop her parents from letting her go on a trip abroad. In those days school trips to other countries were exceptional for most children.

The first photo was taken in Koblenz, situated alongside the river Rhine and some 150 kilometers from the Dutch border.

The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring in Koblenz 1932

My mother Annie de Langen sits above the rear wheels, a little to the left. Next to her is her lifelong friend Ineke Weststeijn. The coach is operated by still existing Kraftwagen-Verkehr Koblenz G.m.b.H. (KVG)*. It is seen here passing the Barbara Denkmal on the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring. This military monument commemorates a German artillery regiment stationed in Koblenz in the previous century. But also other nations made use of this monument. After the First World War, the French occupied this region and thought it a good idea to demonstrate their presence.

The French Rhine Army parading in front of the Barbara Denkmal in Koblenz in 1924
(Postcard made by Karl Albert Zimmermann (1885-1943**)

Judging by this postcard, the locals were not overly interested in this noisy display of power. 

Seeing the monument I wondered whether it survived the Second World War. And it did. The following image is a Google screenshot. The location is probably the same but the street name changed.

The Barbara Denkmal on the Friedrich-Ebert-Ring today

The city of Koblenz suffered from frequent bombings during the last World War. If you compare the background in the screenshot with the other two pictures, it is easy to see changes. None of the old buildings made it through the war. It is a small wonder that the Denkmal suffered minor damages only.

Apparently, the school was fond of sightseeing tours. The next year, in 1933, the school trip went to Göttingen, also in Germany. But this time the students traveled in a rented coach owned by a company called VIOS*** from Wateringen near The Hague.

The VIOS bus in Göttingen, Germany in 1933

My mother is seen here looking at us from the bus' rooftop. She is the girl on the very right and next to her Ineke. 

This is the end of the coach section of this post. Also for the cyclist pictures, I start before the Second World War.

Ber Schregel and Jan Miebies in approx. 1938

The photographer apparently was late by a few seconds. Now we see the backs of Ber Schregel, a friend and colleague of my father, and my father Jan Miebies. Their luggage suggests they are going on a camping holiday or maybe to a youth hostel. I recognize the location, it is the Mispelstraat in The Hague, the street where my mother lived. Knowing this street, I can see they cycle south. The only thing that puzzled me was why they were cycling on the left side of the street. But then it dawned on me that I have been looking at a mirrored print ever since I know this picture. So I reversed it again.

At least now I know they left in a northerly direction. It is never too late to set history straight ;-)

The picture that follows shows a married couple to be. They are family members of my wife. Their names are Sibbeltje Klopstra (l) and Aaldrik Kroeze. Although we are far from certain, we believe this photo was taken in the city of Groningen in the early years of the Second World War when it was still safe for men to go outside without being arrested and deported to Germany to forcibly work there.

The somewhat surprised look on Aaldriks face makes me believe this was not a planned situation. This picture is rather the work of a street photographer. In any case, their trip together continued. They got married in December 1943 and had two children. She turned 96 and he was 93!

The first car in this post is also from the pre-war era. Based on the text on the front wheel cap I found the car is an Opel Kadett. It has German plates. This model was in production between 1937-1940. 

Opel Kadett cabriolet****

This information, together with the fact that the friend, Wim Tuk, had a job in Germany, dates the photo below to approx. 1938. My father is seated next to the driver; my mother is in the left-hand rear seat. 

The last car on display is an Austin A30. It belonged to acquaintances of my mother. The boy next to it is my brother and I date this picture around 1955. Possibly my mother borrowed this car to spend a day in the countryside.

My brother and an Austin A30

Please turn to the Sepia Saturday site for contributions of honest, non-cheating Sepians.

Notes and credits

* Next year the company exists 100 years! It was established on March 19, 1925.

**Barbara-Denkmal (Koblenz). (2022, August 10). In Wikipedia. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara-Denkmal_(Koblenz)

*** Founded in 1922, also VIOS still exists!

****Bestand:Opel-kadett-1936.Jpg - Wikipedia. In Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opel-kadett-1936.jpg

Vandaag ... (10) Today ... (10)

 For a summary in English, please scroll down

Vanuit commercieel oogpunt heeft de KLM er altijd aan gehecht met enige regelmaat de aandacht te (laten) vestigen op interessante mijlpaaltjes c.q. -palen. Een eerste vlucht naar een nieuwe bestemming, de eerste vlucht over de pool,

First KLM scheduled flight Amsterdam-Sana'a (Yemen) Oct. 28, 1992

de eerste vlucht naar Indië enz. Allemaal memorabele firsts. Maar sommige van die eerstelingen waren commercieel helemaal niet interessant en daar is dan ook zelden of nooit aandacht aan geschonken. Daarom is het hoog tijd er eentje voor het voetlicht halen al was het alleen omdat deze gebeurtenis vandaag precies 100 jaar geleden heeft plaatsgevonden.

Op 22 november 1895 wordt in Amersfoort ene Adriaan Pieter Johannes Pijl geboren. Hij is de zoon van Leendert Pijl, foerier bij de Huzaren, en zijn vrouw Cornelia Ulb. Na een aanvankelijke carrière als kantoorbediende te hebben nagestreefd, neemt Adriaan in 1915 dienst bij de Landstorm (niet te verwarren met het gelijknamige Duitse legeronderdeel tijdens WOII). Hij brengt het al snel tot sergeant en op 1 november 1918 wordt hij overgeplaatst naar het 5^e Regt. Infanterie waar hij een 5-jarige verbintenis aangaat als vlieger bij de LVA, de Luchtvaartafdeeling (met ee), een legeronderdeel want de Luchtmacht bestaat nog niet. Hij haalt daar op 4 september 1919 zijn brevet en treedt zo in de voetsporen van o.a. Plesman, die dat papiertje een jaar eerder haalde. Adriaan is inmiddels sergeant-vlieger. Op 1 april 1922 gaat hij met verlof  'buiten bezwaar van 's Rijks schatkist' en wordt hij vliegenier bij de K.L.M. (toen nog met puntjes). Hij heeft er inmiddels 750 vlieguren op zitten o.a. op de Nederlandse Spijker V.2, een kist met een motor van wel 80 pk!

Nu hij een baan met vooruitzichten heeft, trouwt Adriaan op 15 november 1922 met Berdina Brinkhoff uit het Limburgse Gennep. Het echtpaar gaat vlak bij Adriaans’ werk wonen en wel aan de Nieuwe Meerdijk in Rijk in de Haarlemmermeer. Of er in die tijd al een WRR (werk- en rusttijdenregeling) bestaat, is niet bekend maar op 24 april 1924 heeft Adriaan 215 oversteken over het Kanaal op zijn naam staan. Dat zijn, naast zijn andere vluchten, 430 starts en landingen in 2 jaar! Op die datum vertrekt hij met de Fokker F.III H-NABS van Croydon richting Waalhaven.

A rare picture of the Fokker F.III H-NABS
(source: Aviation archive Herman Dekker)

Aan boord twee passagiers, de heren Van Hien en Modderman, en 60 kgs vracht (à ƒ 0,80 pkg). De vlucht gaat via het aan de Kanaalkust gelegen Lympne om nog een pakje op te halen. Het vertrek ex Lympne mag Adriaan naar eigen (weers-)inzicht bepalen. Om 14.00 uur krijgt hij informatie dat de mist boven het Kanaal is opgetrokken en hij vertrekt. KLM-vliegeniers hebben instructie van de chef van de Vliegdienst, Dellaert, om het Kanaal over te steken tussen Dover en Folkestone enerzijds en Calais en Gravelines aan de Franse kant. Pijl lijkt dit ook gedaan te hebben; een getuige ziet de Fokker bij goed zicht nog bij Sandgate overkomen. Wel is het zo, zegt de getuige, dat de horizon door mist niet zichtbaar is... 

Dat is het laatste dat van Pijl en zijn passagiers is gezien. Om 17.00 uur is de Fokker nog steeds niet op Waalhaven gearriveerd. Ook de gebruikelijke overvliegberichten van Calais, Duinkerken en Oostende ontbreken. Pijl kan die niet zelf doorgeven want hij heeft geen radio aan boord, hij moet het met alleen een kompas doen. Zoektochten leveren niets op en men moet concluderen dat Pijl heeft geprobeerd boven het Kanaal onder de mist door te vliegen en daarbij met een klap het water heeft geraakt. Er is niet veel fantasie voor nodig om te bedenken wat dat met een machine, het woord 'kist' is hier meer op z'n plaats, doet die voornamelijk bestaat uit triplex (three-ply covering) en de ailerons zelfs uit een weefsel (fabric). Geen wonder dus dat er van de H-NABS niets is teruggevonden en van de inzittenden al evenmin. Daarmee geniet Adriaan Pijl de twijfelachtige eer exact 100 jaar geleden de eerste KLM-piloot te zijn geweest die tijdens de uitoefening van zijn beroep om het leven is gekomen.

Adriaan P.J. Pijl, approx. 1923
(coll. R.I.L. Pijl)

Het overlijden van Pijl is nooit formeel vastgesteld. Daarmee behoort hij tot een grote groep van vermiste personen. Er is een politie-instantie die zich daarmee bezighoudt: het Landelijk Bureau Vermiste Personen. Het bureau bemoeit zich zelfs met aangespoelde lichamen van personen die vanaf 1920 vermist zijn geraakt. Voor identificatie maakt men o.m. gebruik van een DNA-databank. Het DNA van een opgespoorde neef van Pijl, is hierin opgenomen. Maar dat heeft helaas (nog) niet tot resultaat geleid.

Tot slot: zeker in de begindagen van de luchtvaart hadden piloten vaak de status van 'Bekende Nederlander'. Denk aan Van der Hoop, Viruly, Parmentier, Gijsendorfer en Van Veenendaal. Pijl heeft het nooit zover gebracht, daarvoor is hij te jong overleden. Niettemin verdient hij het herinnerd te worden, niet alleen omdat hij de eerste K.L.M.-vlieger was die tijdens een (lijn)vlucht om het leven kwam maar ook omdat hij aan het begin heeft gestaan van de ontwikkeling van het vervoer van passagiers en vracht door de lucht. Dat dit alles in die tijd niet zonder risico's was, heeft hij op tragische wijze moeten ervaren.

Voor veel meer informatie over het verdwijnen van de H-NABS, zie een eerder blog en het indrukwekkende luchtvaartarchief van Herman Dekker.

Update 28 april 2024

Dit blog is ook gepubliceerd in Vrije Vogels nr. 230, het periodiek van de Vereniging Gepensioneerden KLM van april 2024. Met dank aan Henk van Rooijen!

                                           

English summary

On this day, it is exactly 100 years ago that aviator Adriaan Pieter Johannes Pijl disappeared over the English Channel. In a sense, he made history with this unfortunate incident. But I'll come back to that later. 

In KLM we have always been fond of so-called firsts. A first flight to a new destination, the first flight over the North Pole, and before WWII, the first flight to the former Dutch East Indies. Obviously, there always was a commercial/marketing reason behind all publications featuring these firsts. But some of these firsts did hardly get any attention, simply because it was not in the commercial interest of KLM. One of those forgotten events was the a.m. disappearance of Adriaan Pijl on April 24, 1924.

Adriaan was born in Amersfoort on November 22, 1895. His father was a military man and so were his brothers. In 1915 he joined the army and in 1918 he was transferred to the 5th Regt. Infantry. He signed a 5-year contract as a pilot with the Aviation Department. 

Father Leendert Pijl and (f.l.t.r.) sons Leendert,
Cornelis and Adriaan 
(photographer P.H. Kouw*, coll. R.I.L. Pijl)

In September 1919 he got his pilot's license. After having flown 750 hours on various aircraft types - a.o. the French Nieuport with an 80 hp (!) engine -, he joined K.L.M in April 1922. Shortly after he married Berdina Brinkhoff, a girl from Limburg. The couple rented some rooms near Adriaan's work, Schiphol Airport. That saved him a lot of commuting because when he was employed by K.L.M. for hardly two years, he made 215 Channel crossings. That amounts to an impressive 430 take-offs and landings! And he also flew to other places. When he was about to make crossing number 216, he was taking off at Lympne airport, a couple of miles from the English Channel coast. He arrived there from Croydon in his Fokker F.III with registration H-NABS. This aircraft had a payload of 770 kg. With two passengers on board and some cargo, Adriaan remained well within the limits of his Fokker. Before taking off, he received information that the fog over the Channel had disappeared. On his way back to Rotterdam Waalhaven, he was seen overflying Sandgate. This witness said there were good flying conditions but added that he could not see the horizon because of fog ...

When the Fokker did not arrive at Waalhaven airport three hours later, and there were no overflight reports from Calais, Dunkirk, and Ostend rescue aircraft took off. The fact that the Fokker did not have any radio equipment on board -Adriaan's only instrument was a compass- did not help to locate the aircraft. But despite all rescue efforts, the F.III and all three occupants remained missing. The most likely thing that happened was that the aircraft hit the water. One only needs a little imagination to visualize what such an impact does to the structure of this aircraft made of three-ply covering and some fabric here and there.

This incident is why Adriaan Pijl has the dubious honor of being the first K.L.M. pilot who died when practicing his profession.

Legally, to the best of my knowledge, Adriaan must still be considered a missing person. In The Netherlands, there is a police department looking for missing persons (or their remains). In the course of this investigation, I found a cousin of Pijl. He has been so kind to provide a police database with his DNA. But so far that did not provide any clues. 

Although in the early days of aviation, many pilots reached celebrity status, Adriaan was not among them. He simply died too young. Still, he was very instrumental in the development of air transport of passengers, cargo, and mail a little over 100 years ago. For all this, he deserves to be remembered!

For many more details about the disappearance of the H-NABS, please see my earlier blog.

* Based on the activities of this photographer in Nijmegen, the picture was taken in or before 1922.